Mankind's utter dependency on technology extends back approximately three million years to the first stone tools, but it was only with the innovation of hafting, some 300,000 years ago, that technology took its first modern form and revolutionized our social and economic lives.
The development of handles and shafts, which were added to some tools previously made of single materials and hand-held, made the tools not only more efficient but improved their makers' chances of survival by making the quest for food more productive.
This volume brings together evidence for the cognitive, social, and technological foundations necessary for the development of hafting to form a speculative theory about this revolutionary innovation. The creation of tools with handles required considerable planning based on an expert understanding of the properties of the raw materials involved, a form of early engineering. Yet it was the ability to envisage the final, integrated form of the tool which underpinned the remarkable novelty of hafting, one which had massive implications for the human species and which laid the foundations for the technology we rely on today.
By:
Lawrence Barham (Professor of Archaeology University of Liverpool)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 222mm,
Width: 171mm,
Spine: 27mm
Weight: 658g
ISBN: 9780199604715
ISBN 10: 0199604711
Pages: 372
Publication Date: 26 September 2013
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements List of Figures Introduction 1: What is combinatorial evolution? 2: Neural, cognitive, and anatomical foundations 3: Tools for learning 4: Something new from something old 5: The invention of hafting 6: After the revolution 7: A revolution without heroes Bibliography Index
Lawrence Barham is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Liverpool where he teaches Evolutionary Anthropology.
Reviews for From Hand to Handle: The First Industrial Revolution
The book is built upon a coherent and logical structure and written in appealing language, approachable for wide audiences. * Malgorzata Anna Kot, European Journal of Archaeology * From hand to handle by LAWRENCE BARHAM is a remarkable compilation of a huge range of topics. * David R. Braun, Antiquity *